A need has developed for a custom cosmetic color selection system, pursuant to which a consumer or other customer (such as an intermediate retailer or wholesaler) can interact with the supplier to select a specific color, effect or both, to blend the resulting cosmetic product at or near the time of selection, such as at a point of sale location. This need has been met by the subject matter of co-pending, commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/818,389 (filed Mar. 27, 2001), Ser. No. 09/818,077 (filed Mar. 27, 2001), Ser. No. 29/142,835 (filed Jun. 1, 2001), Ser. No. 60/324,493 (filed Sep. 24, 2001), Ser. No. 60/352,120 (filed Jan. 24, 2002), Ser. No. 60/357,001 (filed Feb. 14, 2002), Ser. No. 29/157,727 (filed Mar. 22, 2002), Ser. No. 10/151,398 (filed May 20, 2002), Ser. No. 60/405,126 (filed Aug. 22, 2002), Ser. No. 10/246,391 (filed Sep. 18, 2002), Ser. No. 10/253,191 (filed Sep. 24, 2002), U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,658 (issued Jul. 2, 2002), and U.S. Pat. No. D461,080 (issued Aug. 6, 2002), which are all hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. The present invention further improves the above subject matter by affording an improved system (including methods and apparatus) for the point of sale display and dispensing of cosmetics.